Lost or stolen possessions that are found or recovered by police or a third party often cannot be returned to their rightful owners unless the owners have notified the police that a possession is missing. In cases where a possession may be of great value and the owner is sure it has been stolen, the police may be notified. However, an owner of a possession is unlikely to notify the police if a possession is lost, misplaced or if the owner does not know that the possession has been lost or stolen.
It is also known in the art that ownership claims in respect of lost or stolen possessions that are recovered can be difficult as the owner often must prove that he or she is the rightful owner of the recovered object. In some cases, receipts must be produced that describe the recovered article, or serial numbers must be provided in advance to establish ownership. In many cases, the rightful owner of an article may not keep receipts or serial numbers of the articles that he or she purchases. Thus, there is a need in the art for unique marking compositions that can be used to mark personal property including for example, articles of value. Further, there is a need in the art for novel methods of marking objects of personal property to facilitate claims of ownership and return should the personal property be stolen or lost and subsequently recovered. Further, there is a need in the art for a searchable electronic database system to identify, list and describe objects that have been lost or stolen and for police to return recovered possessions to their rightful owners.
It is an object of the invention to overcome disadvantages of the prior art.
The above object(s) is met by the combinations of features of the main claims, the sub-claims disclose further advantageous embodiments of the invention.